Moves for a Smart House
It’s now possible to add more and more wires in a house without having to drill holes and creating a web of exposed cables

Wiring a house in a systematic manner, particularly for communication and entertainment, has never topped the homeowner’s priority list. After all, home wiring has traditionally been the electrician’s preserve, who invariably leaves behind a veritable web of entangled power cables and telephone wires. Now, Smart Wiring, the latest concept in wiring, promises to eliminate the mess, and also makes provisions for future high-tech additions.

Internal wiring in each room of the house for telephone, Internet, cable and home security connections is a matter of routine. The problem arises if the occupant wants to buy these services later on. This is because each of these services is usually provided by a different company, and at the time of installation, fresh wiring has to be drawn to each corner of the house, clipped to walls, holes drilled and modem or connectors fixed. So it is not unusual to find that a few years after construction, the walls of even the most well-designed homes are marked by exposed wiring. And this is what Smart Wiring is promising to make a thing of the past.

Smart Wiring, pioneered in Australia, uses a star configuration where all the wiring infrastructure inside a house is directed towards a hub or a home distributor (HD). From here, telephone lines, cable TV connections, and Internet points are routed to the rooms. The HD is usually located in the garage or any such area which is most convenient to access by service providers, and has slots connected to each of the rooms and other areas of the house. This hub becomes the housing for all service interface, such as connectors and modems. When a new service is to be taken up, the service provider simply installs the interface in the HD, and plugs in the supply for the required rooms.

For example, when an Internet connection is acquired, the service provider will not have to draw fresh wiring right up to a room in order to install a modem. Instead, it will be installed in the HD, and plugged into the slots of the rooms which are to be connected. Further, if the connection has to be redistributed among the rooms, the homeowner has to simply take out the wire from one slot and insert it in the other. In this manner, supply can be facilitated or discontinued to a particular room. And when an interruption takes place, only one outlet is affected.

What makes Smart Wiring so efficient is the fact that it is done using coaxial cables like CAT 6 UTP and Quadshield RG 6 Coax. CAT 6 provides telephone and Internet access wherever a telecommunications outlet is installed. It also enables computers to be networked for simultaneous access to the Internet and sharing of peripheral devices like printers. On the other hand, RG 6 provides access to cable TV from any room in the house.

The other obvious benefit of Smart Wiring is that it enhances the aesthetic appeal of a house by giving it a clean, uncluttered look. And once installed, it takes care of future wiring needs, thereby eliminating the need for post-interior work, and thus saving time and additional costs. Besides, the cost of Smart Wiring a house during construction is far less than retro-wiring an existing one. Also, pre-wiring a building during construction will prepare it for new information and communication hardware and appliances in the future. What;s more, the value of a smart wired building will exceed that of one which is not.

Taking cognizance of all these benefits, the International Copper Promotion Council of India (ICPCI) is promoting Smart Wiring across the country. Says Santosh Konnur (santosh.konnur@icpci.org), chief manager building & construction (ICPCI), “It’s time that a sophisticated home wiring network is introduced in India, since our existing wiring systems are very cumbersome and unwieldy. If the concept can flourish in Australia, then why not in India? People here are keen on upgrading their living spaces and making them more efficient, smarter and economical.” How will the concept be popularised? Explains Konnur, “In the initial stages, we plan to organise workshops for electricians at the municipal level. We will provide training, support and certification, and an installation handbook. Next in line will be meetings with the country’s prominent builders such as Ansals, DLF, Parsvnath and Rahejas. We will explain the advantages of Smart Wiring and convince them to install it in their buildings, and we will also assist and train their electricians in the installation process.”

But breaking ground with a new concept is not so easy unless the concerned industry is brought on board. Konnur informs that ICPCI is in the process of roping in industry leaders like Finolex, Anchor, Legrand, Schneider, RR Kabel and Polycab for this drive. “All these companies have a stake in improving the way buildings are wired, since they offer products that perform better if proper wiring is used. We are also in talks with service providers like MTNL and Reliance, because they can easily reach out to the end-users.” He hopes that three to four years from now, homeowners will themselves take the initiative of getting their house smartly wired!